Madison River
Dam:804 cfs
Kirby: 860 cfs
The near record temperatures and sunny skies have provided some very pleasant weather for anglers throughout the state over the last week, but fishing has been pretty day-to-day on the Upper Madison. The float section has definitely been the most inconsistent…one day they’re eating streamers and small attractors like a champ, and the next day you’d swear you’re not on the same river. Its anybody’s guess when it will turn on again, but we have colder temperatures and cloudy skies in the forecast all next week, so tomorrow looks like as good a day as any. Just a little ways upstream from Lyon’s has been a different story, as the wade section has been FAR more forgiving in the catching department. Mornings have been good to excellent with both streamers and nymphs, and it should only get better with more consistent fall temperatures expected all this week. Unless you’re a streamer junkie, there’s really no need to be out there before 9:00 a.m.. Black Sex Dungeons and olive peanuts have been leading the pack in the am, but once the sun gets high start throwing your whites, yellows, and brown/yellows…although we’ve had a few days where we never took off the olive peanut. As for your nymphs…keep them small…we cannot stress this enough considering the biggest nymphs we’ve been catching good fish on have been 18’s and 20’s. Start with your baetis nymphs and midge larva early on, and switch over to emerging baetis nymphs (#20 barr’s emerger, #20 Tripple B Flashback, etc) and midge pupa (#18 $3 dip) once the bugs start popping, and you should be handsomely rewarded as one of our lucky clients was yesterday. We have been seeing good numbers of tan caddis out during the afternoon, but they should start to peter out as temperatures start to drop, and fall fishing resumes as normal on the Upper Madison this week. We should also start to see more fish moving up from both Ennis and Quake Lakes this week, so now would be a good time to string up the sinking line and go looking for some big, ornery browns.
